It was when President Trump was exploding social media with warnings for North Korea's "rocket man" that the left openly worried about his grip on reality and how the isolated communist regime might retaliate
The rhetoric led, however, to a summit with dictator Kim Jong Un to discuss nuclear disarmament and long-term peace.
On Monday, the left once again openly worried about the president's grip on reality and how Iran might retaliate after he returned the latest Iranian threat with an all-capital-letter tweet Sunday night.
To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018
TRENDING: Greatest Show on Earth: The Hur report hearing
"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)."
Jack Holmes at Esquire was illustrative of the left's reaction.
Under the headline "The U.S. President Is Screaming at Another Country in All Caps on the Internet," he wrote, "As a general rule, the world's most powerful man probably shouldn't rattle off run-on sentences in ALL CAPS like a deranged Internet commenter – except he's not going on about the new Star Wars movie, he's threatening a nation of 80 million people with nuclear annihilation.
"Now, we are forced to engage in yet another discussion of whether Donald Trump, American president, is playing six-dimensional chess to distract people from some other news item, or whether he is really just nuts. (There's also the meta-debate about whether to cover these hysterical outbursts as news at all. But a hysterical outburst from the president is news.)"
Holmes didn't mention Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's threat to the United States just hours earlier: "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars."
Trump's similarly fiery tweets about North Korea led to the release of American hostages and the June 12 summit, the first between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea.
A report from The Week confirmed any results will take time, with Kim wanting the president "to lift economic sanctions" and Trump "in no rush to appease North Korea."
"We're just going through the process," the president said last week. "But the relationships are very good."
Trump also has used his penchant for strong rhetoric to convince NATO members to raise their financial contributions to the military alliance.
NPR reported Trump's latest tweets coincided with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launching a blistering attack on Iran in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
"Pompeo accused Iran of corruption and mismanagement at the highest levels and said the country had backed terrorist attacks in Europe even as it tried to reassure EU members that Iran will follow restrictions in their nuclear agreement," the report said.
Pompeo warned that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, controls a hedge fund valued at $95 billion, the report said.
Pompeo even posted social-media statements in Farsi to speak directly to the Iranian people and build on the growing anti-regime sentiment.
The BBC reported Iran has been in turmoil since President Trump said the U.S. was leaving President Obama's nuclear deal, with U.S. sanctions further hampering the nation's economy.
The report conceded that while Trump's social media "barrages" against Kim included calling the dictator a "madman," their "verbal hostilities nonetheless evolved into diplomacy."
The report noted a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards didn't take Trump's statement as a threat.
"The remarks Trump makes against Iran are psychological warfare and he would be mistaken should he seek to take action against Iran," Gholamhossein Gheybparvar said.
The Independent of London reported that sometimes, as with Kim, "it has to be said that the Trump method seems to work."
The reality is that "both the U.S. and Iran have proceeded more cautiously than initial responses indicated [when the U.S. announced it was dropping Obama's nuclear agreement]."